How Do We Know?

By asking this question, I’m not starting an apologetic response to a non-Christian asking, “How do you know God is real?” I’m asking the question, “How do we know anything at all?”

The simple answer is, “Because God made us this way.” I’ve already covered a bit about Who We Are, and to reiterate, since God is all-knowing and since He made us in His image, we have the capacity to know things.

This might sound overly simplistic, but look at the other creatures on the planet. We believe God created them all, and yet none of them can use the Socratic method for discussion. You don’t see any other creatures harnessing the knowledge of engineering to create skyscrapers. Yes, birds make nests and beavers make dams, et cetera, but to engineer something? That is unique to humans.

Not only do we have knowledge as humans, but we strive for it. We have schools and universities. We are all, at some level, seeking truth. Even those who deny absolute truth are looking for something that “works for them.” That is, something that is “true for me.”

We are not content with simply living in our environments. We want to understand our environments, and although we have different views, we all strive for that knowledge.

As Christians, we can learn and know things that are actually true because God has made us this way, and He has made the world itself knowable to us. He’s also communicated this to us in the Bible, so that we can know about Him and that we need Him.

That’s the key – this idea that God wants us to know things. It wasn’t an option He put into us, but a standard feature. He wants us to learn about and know His creation so that we will learn about and know Him.